Is Gamestop Evil? The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

[SwooshBear]

Went to Gamestop this weekend for the B2G2 Ps2 deal they had. Nothing really interesting but Mega Man X Collection. When I went to purchase it, the guy behind the counter and I began to talk about mega man, and he gave me one of those lists of upcoming Ps3 game releases. Pretty cool guy and great experience.

[xan_racketBOY_fan]

I don't enjoy going to Gamestop, but I just had to today because they had a brand new copy of Raiden IV for only $20 (next best price I could find was at Frys for $36).



Should have known better. At least the discs appear to be new.

[Rurouni_Fencer]

OK. I'm done with Gamestop...

My local store has a small bucket of GBA games they're trying to get rid of. Through the enormous Tony Hawks and xXx crap, (and still insanely marked up Nintendo games,) I find Pokemon's Ruby and Emerald. The sticker on the back doesn't have the price - instead it has "Defective Item. Return to... something-or-other.." I politely ask the kid behind the counter how much they are, because no price is given.
After he looks at the back, his eyes triple blink and he says, literally:
GS clerk: "uhh... umm.. We.. can't.. sell these. Yeah, I don't know why those were in there."
Me: "Well, I'd still like to purchase them. How much?"
Clerk: "They're gonna be $30 bucks each."
Me: "But the sticker clearly says they're defective."
Clerk: "...right. Which is why I can't give them to you..."
Me: "Umm.. even if I know full well they may not work and I'm still willing to pay money for them..?"
Clerk: "Right.. $30 is what the working Ruby goes for.. You can buy that.."
Me: "I don't want to pay $30 for a "Gamestop guaranteed working" Ruby. I'd prefer to save some of my money and buy them at the discounted price since it's from the clearance bin.. Then I can try to see if I can fix it or make it work.."
Clerk: "Well.. I'm not selling it to you. Store policy. Sorry."

He then proceeds to take the games and shove them somewhere under the counter. As if I didn't know what he was trying to do.. I spent about another 3 minutes looking for a DS game and as I walk out, he says to me: "So wait! You know how to fix these..?" I turn to him and shrug - "I guess you'll never know, huh? Good luck with them.."

What a doucher! All he had to do was say that the company's policy is to return defective items to HQ and honor the customer's price for a working one. Here I was merely offering to pay the asking clearance price, (still probably $20) for something that was not guaranteed to work. If anything, I'm the one making the risk, and they're making the money - but it was my choice to do so! I felt like throwing the goddamn Fry money meme in his face.. Take my damn money, Gamestop. If I can fix it, and you make a few bucks instead of destroying it, then we both win..

Once my preorder of KoF XIII comes in, I'm finished with Gamestop. I've put up with they're damn shoddy business etiquette for far too long.

[CRTGAMER]

OK. I'm done with Gamestop...

My local store has a small bucket of GBA games they're trying to get rid of. Through the enormous Tony Hawks and xXx crap, (and still insanely marked up Nintendo games,) I find Pokemon's Ruby and Emerald. The sticker on the back doesn't have the price - instead it has "Defective Item. Return to... something-or-other.." I politely ask the kid behind the counter how much they are, because no price is given.

Unfortunately the sales clerk hand was tied, has to go by whatever the register spits out. I do notice that Gamestop prices any Nintendo name brands high including Mario, Donkey Kong and especially Pokemon.

The current price on Pokemon Ruby is $29.99 used, even if its just a cart.
http://www.gamestop.com/gba/games/pokemon-ruby/26293

Pokemon Emerald is worse, it $39.99 used. Cart only, good luck if it has a box.
http://www.gamestop.com/gba/games/pokemon-emerald/37370

[BurningDoom]

OK. I'm done with Gamestop...

My local store has a small bucket of GBA games they're trying to get rid of. Through the enormous Tony Hawks and xXx crap, (and still insanely marked up Nintendo games,) I find Pokemon's Ruby and Emerald. The sticker on the back doesn't have the price - instead it has "Defective Item. Return to... something-or-other.." I politely ask the kid behind the counter how much they are, because no price is given.
After he looks at the back, his eyes triple blink and he says, literally:
GS clerk: "uhh... umm.. We.. can't.. sell these. Yeah, I don't know why those were in there."
Me: "Well, I'd still like to purchase them. How much?"
Clerk: "They're gonna be $30 bucks each."
Me: "But the sticker clearly says they're defective."
Clerk: "...right. Which is why I can't give them to you..."
Me: "Umm.. even if I know full well they may not work and I'm still willing to pay money for them..?"
Clerk: "Right.. $30 is what the working Ruby goes for.. You can buy that.."
Me: "I don't want to pay $30 for a "Gamestop guaranteed working" Ruby. I'd prefer to save some of my money and buy them at the discounted price since it's from the clearance bin.. Then I can try to see if I can fix it or make it work.."
Clerk: "Well.. I'm not selling it to you. Store policy. Sorry."

He then proceeds to take the games and shove them somewhere under the counter. As if I didn't know what he was trying to do.. I spent about another 3 minutes looking for a DS game and as I walk out, he says to me: "So wait! You know how to fix these..?" I turn to him and shrug - "I guess you'll never know, huh? Good luck with them.."

What a doucher! All he had to do was say that the company's policy is to return defective items to HQ and honor the customer's price for a working one. Here I was merely offering to pay the asking clearance price, (still probably $20) for something that was not guaranteed to work. If anything, I'm the one making the risk, and they're making the money - but it was my choice to do so! I felt like throwing the goddamn Fry money meme in his face.. Take my damn money, Gamestop. If I can fix it, and you make a few bucks instead of destroying it, then we both win..

Once my preorder of KoF XIII comes in, I'm finished with Gamestop. I've put up with they're damn shoddy business etiquette for far too long.

Fuck store policy. Seriously. What happened to the days when the customer was #1? Now, everywhere, store policy is #1. Companies are more than willing to screw over a few unhappy customers just to make their policies seem like unchangable law. What happened to the days when a store would go the extra mile for you sometimes just to make sure you were a repeat customer? I miss that. Now we're treated like they're doing us a favor rather than the store relying on us for their income.

[xan_racketBOY_fan]

OK. I'm done with Gamestop...

My local store has a small bucket of GBA games they're trying to get rid of. Through the enormous Tony Hawks and xXx crap, (and still insanely marked up Nintendo games,) I find Pokemon's Ruby and Emerald. The sticker on the back doesn't have the price - instead it has "Defective Item. Return to... something-or-other.." I politely ask the kid behind the counter how much they are, because no price is given.
After he looks at the back, his eyes triple blink and he says, literally:
GS clerk: "uhh... umm.. We.. can't.. sell these. Yeah, I don't know why those were in there."
Me: "Well, I'd still like to purchase them. How much?"
Clerk: "They're gonna be $30 bucks each."
Me: "But the sticker clearly says they're defective."
Clerk: "...right. Which is why I can't give them to you..."
Me: "Umm.. even if I know full well they may not work and I'm still willing to pay money for them..?"
Clerk: "Right.. $30 is what the working Ruby goes for.. You can buy that.."
Me: "I don't want to pay $30 for a "Gamestop guaranteed working" Ruby. I'd prefer to save some of my money and buy them at the discounted price since it's from the clearance bin.. Then I can try to see if I can fix it or make it work.."
Clerk: "Well.. I'm not selling it to you. Store policy. Sorry."

He then proceeds to take the games and shove them somewhere under the counter. As if I didn't know what he was trying to do.. I spent about another 3 minutes looking for a DS game and as I walk out, he says to me: "So wait! You know how to fix these..?" I turn to him and shrug - "I guess you'll never know, huh? Good luck with them.."

What a doucher! All he had to do was say that the company's policy is to return defective items to HQ and honor the customer's price for a working one. Here I was merely offering to pay the asking clearance price, (still probably $20) for something that was not guaranteed to work. If anything, I'm the one making the risk, and they're making the money - but it was my choice to do so! I felt like throwing the goddamn Fry money meme in his face.. Take my damn money, Gamestop. If I can fix it, and you make a few bucks instead of destroying it, then we both win..

Once my preorder of KoF XIII comes in, I'm finished with Gamestop. I've put up with they're damn shoddy business etiquette for far too long.

This is no surprise from store selling opened games as brand new.

[Rurouni_Fencer]

Pretty much everything BurningDoom said is how I feel.. CRT, you're right in that an employee really should follow store policy. But c'mon! They're getting rid of GBA and PS2 games to make room for current gen stuff. I get that they want to avoid upset customers coming back when they buy something that doesn't work, and so that's why they weed out defective product. But this kid clearly saw an opportunity to flex his employee muscle and take the games home to himself. He stuttered so apparently when he saw the defective sticker, as if it's a way for him to score two otherwise free expensive games for himself. This is further implied by his questioning me about how to get them to work as I walked out. The kid wanted them for himself and he was willing to bullshit a customer to do so.
Store policy? How strict could it possibly be? The SKU is in the system for the game, so they could be sold as-is if they wanted to and corporate would never know. Moreover, it's in a clearance bin that is marked down, so the employee has liberty over such products to manually enter said info. If he wanted to, he could have just given them to me. I'll acknowledge Gamestop employees can be kind and throw customers posters or cases/manuals that they're just tossing out anyway, (there's plenty of testimonial on this thread alone of such charity!)
I wasn't even asking for free - I was asking him to sell me something that was clearly advertised and available to be sold. It's no different than a Gamestop clerk saying, "I can't sell you "X" game because it's the last copy we have used and I want to buy it. You can buy the marked up "New" copy though if you'd like.

Hell, Gamestop has no problem selling me an opened and marked up disc at the 'New' price, or without certain DLC or extras if the company sees fit.. So it's a problem all of a sudden to sell me a cart that's two generations old, from a clearance bin, when I willingly acknowledge it may be defective and I'm still willing to throw money at you for it?

The customer is not always right. The customer should feel privileged to shop at Gamestop because Gamestop doesn't need their loyalty to survive in a toilet-swirl economy..

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Pretty much everything BurningDoom said is how I feel.. CRT, you're right in that an employee really should follow store policy. But c'mon! They're getting rid of GBA and PS2 games to make room for current gen stuff. I get that they want to avoid upset customers coming back when they buy something that doesn't work, and so that's why they weed out defective product. But this kid clearly saw an opportunity to flex his employee muscle and take the games home to himself. He stuttered so apparently when he saw the defective sticker, as if it's a way for him to score two otherwise free expensive games for himself. This is further implied by his questioning me about how to get them to work as I walked out. The kid wanted them for himself and he was willing to bullshit a customer to do so.
Store policy? How strict could it possibly be? The SKU is in the system for the game, so they could be sold as-is if they wanted to and corporate would never know. Moreover, it's in a clearance bin that is marked down, so the employee has liberty over such products to manually enter said info. If he wanted to, he could have just given them to me. I'll acknowledge Gamestop employees can be kind and throw customers posters or cases/manuals that they're just tossing out anyway, (there's plenty of testimonial on this thread alone of such charity!)
I wasn't even asking for free - I was asking him to sell me something that was clearly advertised and available to be sold. It's no different than a Gamestop clerk saying, "I can't sell you "X" game because it's the last copy we have used and I want to buy it. You can buy the marked up "New" copy though if you'd like.

Hell, Gamestop has no problem selling me an opened and marked up disc at the 'New' price, or without certain DLC or extras if the company sees fit.. So it's a problem all of a sudden to sell me a cart that's two generations old, from a clearance bin, when I willingly acknowledge it may be defective and I'm still willing to throw money at you for it?

The customer is not always right. The customer should feel privileged to shop at Gamestop because Gamestop doesn't need their loyalty to survive in a toilet-swirl economy..

Suuurrrrreeeeee.....

GameStop doesn't care what happens other than them being in the right. Once they mark an item as defective they're acknowledging it has a defect of some sort. Were it to break, break your game system or hurt you in some way they would be liable.

Also, in regards to policy GameStop employees are CRUCIFIED if they even think about making exceptions to the rules. You get two strikes and then you're out with your third.

[pepharytheworm]

I have to ask, Rurouni_Fencer. Where do you work?

[Hazerd]

Rurouni_Fencer i agree 110%, its us Vs. them, there is no mercy.